From Cover To Cover

The Return of the Monthly Sales List, Remembering Bernie Mireault, and An Appearance by Alan Moore— Comic Bookmarks October 26, 2024

The Return of the Monthly Sales List, Remembering Bernie Mireault, and An Appearance by Alan Moore— Comic Bookmarks October 26, 2024

I was sick last week so didn’t get one of these out so there’s interesting reads from the last couple of weeks here to catch up.

Not comics but something to remember as we enter the last two weeks of the 2024 Presidential Election, particularly as major newspapers are refusing to endorse a candidate in this election.

Enough with the politics. Part of being sick recently was that I kind of lost the drive to work on a longer review. I’m about 700 words into a review of Taiyo Matsumoto’s Tokyo These Days but lost the thread of it thanks to a head cold. And when I was a bit better, I just didn’t feel like writing any long pieces. So, instead, I did a week of short reviews. These were all written on my phone with the guideline that they had to fit into one screen of the phone. The conceit was to have one or maybe two ideas that I really looked at. That didn’t leave a lot of room to dive into anything (something I’m kind of sorry for when it comes to the Monsterpiece Theater #1 review.) But these were meant to be quick, short, and more how I felt about the book and not dragged out or really planned. If I’ve been spamming your feed or email this week, I’m sorry for that. But I enjoyed doing these reviews and need to figure out some way to work them into the regular rotation.

Transformers Volume 1: Robots in Disguise— Mini Review
Daniel Warren Johnson makes you feel something for these toys.
Hate Revisited #4 by Peter Bagge- Mini Review
Nostalgic without the nostalgia.
The Power Fantasy #3– Mini Review
In this issue, we learn so much but realize that we know so little about this world.
Absolute Wonder Woman #1— Mini review
This isn’t quite the hero that we know but it is the woman who inspires everyone.
Monsterpiece Theater #1– Mini Review
An idea in search of a story.

Headlines

Remembering Bernie Mireault: 1961-2024 - The Comics Journal
Mireault was never the sort of artist likely to make the front of a Previews catalog, but it is wholly possible to imagine the sort of alternate world where he might have been, and where anyone with verve, talent and tenacity for the art form might do the same.

I’ve been looking at The Jam a lot since Mireault’s passing. He was always a cartoonist that I appreciated and wish had been able to do more. This piece by Zach Rabiroff offers a remembrance and history of Mireault that is insightful to the artist he was.

‘Fandom has toxified the world’: Watchmen author Alan Moore on superheroes, Comicsgate and Trump
Enthusiasm can be a productive force for good, but our culture has rapidly become a fan-based landscape that the rest of us are merely living in

Alan Moore pops his head up. Not to say anything of if he’s right or wrong here, there’s a sense that he’s been saying some form of this for 40 years now. And maybe he has and fandom just hasn’t listened to him yet.

Business

The comics industry hasn’t had an actual health check in five years - but Prana is aiming to change that
For the first time in 5 years, fans, publishers, and everyone will have an idea of just how healthy the comic industry actually is

I go back and forth on how much I think sales matter but usually land on the side of “it’s been 6-8 years since sales data has meant anything to the audience.” It used to be a barometer of what people were reading, that along with Twitter (and other social media) reflected general tastes. But since the mid-aughts, mostly since Marvel and DC really started flooding the market with books, that general audience has felt more fractured than ever so I’m not too sure what this will accomplish. Hopefully it has good information for specialty shop retailers.

Reviews & Features

Chris Ware’s Acme Novelty Date Book, Volume 3
Chris Ware’s Acme Novelty Date Book series, which collects highlights from his sketchbooks, has been a fascinating look into the working pr…

It’s been a while since I checked out the first two Acme Novelty Date Books but this one sounds like it contains a lot of interesting little strips and stories in it.

Who Did What? Marvel’s Attempt to Contextualize Stan Lee

There’s a new version of Origins of Marvel Comics out? This piece by Chris Schillig looks at how this updated edition tries to contextualize Stan Lee’s hucksterisms and misconceptions.

Teenage Dreams | Dustin Illingworth
The graphic novels of Charles Burns contort the bildungsroman into shapes both fantastic and fascinating.

I still need to read Final Cut. It’s one of those books that I feel like the anticipation of it bigger than the actual act of reading it. While I expect it to be excellent, I also expect to be disappointed that I don’t have more new Charles Burns to read.

Manga Review: THE GUY SHE WAS INTERESTED IN WASN’T A GUY AT ALL pitch perfect feel good ink
In THE GUY SHE WAS INTERESTED IN WASN’T A GUY AT ALL, Sumiko Arai’s girl crush manga heart moves to the DGC beat.

Add another one to the list of books to track down.

Godzilla’s Monsterpiece Theatre #1 is a delight for your inner snob and your inner child - Graphic Policy
Godzilla’s Monsterpiece Theatre #1 is a delight and truly a marvelous piece of sequential storytelling, old sport!

And I’ll let Logan have the last word on Godzilla’s Monsterpiece Theater.